Moby Dick Characters | GradeSaver Buy Study Guide Captain Ahab Ahab is the Captain of the Pequod, a grave older man reaching his sixties who has spent nearly forty years as a sailor, only three of which he has spent on dry land (Melville alludes to Ahab as having a wife and son, but their existence seems of little significance to Ahab). The novel is essentially the story of Ahab and his quest to defeat the legendary Sperm Whale Moby Dick, for this whale took Ahab's leg, causing him to use an ivory leg to walk and stand. Ahab is a dour, imposing man who frightens his crew through his unwavering obsession with defeating Moby Dick and his grand hubris. In many respects Melville portrays Ahab as barely human, barely governed by human mores and conventions and nearly entirely subject to his own obsession with Moby Dick. Melville describes him in mostly alien terms: Ahab is a spectral figure haunting Stubb's dreams and existing in a place away from the living. He is in some ways a machine, unaffected by human appetites and without recognizable emotion.

And most importantly, he claims himself a God over the Pequod, but instead he may be a Satanic figure through his somewhat blasphemous quest against the white whale. Ishmael Ishmael is the narrator of the novel, a simple sailor on the Pequod who undertakes the journey because of his affection for the ocean and his need to go sea whenever he feels "hazy about the eyes." As the narrator Ishmael establishes him as somewhat of a cipher and an everyman, and in fact his role in the plot of the novel is inconsequential; his primary task is to observe the conflicts around him. Nevertheless, Melville does give his narrator several significant character traits, the most important of which is his idealization of the Sperm Whale and his belief in its majesty. Also, it is Ishmael who has the only significant personal relationship in the novel; he becomes a close friend with the pagan harpooner Queequeg and comes to cherish and adore Queequeg to a somewhat improbable level open to great interpretation; Melville even describes their relationship in terms of a marriage.

Ishmael is the only survivor of the Pequod's voyage, living to tell the tale of Moby Dick only because he is by chance on a whaling boat when Moby Dick sinks the Pequod and is rescued by a nearby ship. Starbuck Starbuck is the chief mate of the Pequod, a Nantucket native and a Quaker with a thin build and a pragmatic manner. In appearance, Starbuck is quite thin and seems condensed into his most essential characteristics, and his streamlined appearance well suits his attitudes and behavior. Melville portrays Starbuck as both a strong believer in human fallibility and an idealist who believes that these failings may be contained. Among the characters in Moby Dick, it is only Starbuck who openly opposes Captain Ahab, believing his quest against the great whale to be an impulsive and suicidal folly. However, despite his open misgivings about Ahab and the open hostility between these two characters that culminates when Ahab points his musket at Starbuck, the conflicted Starbuck remains loyal to his captain even when he has the possibility of vanquishing Ahab.

If Ahab serves as the protagonist of the novel and Ahab the narrator, Ishmael is the character whom Melville intends as the proxy for the reader: the only character given a gamut of emotions ranging from pity and fear to contempt, Starbuck is Melville's surrogate for an emotional response from his audience. Queequeg Queequeg is a harpooner from New Zealand, the son of a king who renounces the throne in order to travel the world on whaling ships and learn about Christian society. Ishmael meets Queequeg when the two must share a bed at the Spouter Inn in New Bedford before journeying to Nantucket to undertake the journey on the Pequod. Melville portrays Queequeg as a blend of civilized behavior and savagery. Certainly in his appearance and upbringing he is uncivilized by the standards of the main characters of the novel, yet Melville (through his narrator Ishmael) finds Queequeg to be incredibly noble, courteous and brave.

Melville uses Queequeg as a character in perpetual transition: from savagery to civilization, and in the final chapters after he suffers from an illness from which he wills himself recovered, in an uneasy stasis between life and death. The relationship between Queequeg and Ishmael is the most intimate of the novel, as the two become close companions. Stubb The second mate on the Pequod, Stubb is a Cape Cod native with a happy-go-lucky, carefree nature that tends to mask his true opinions and beliefs. Stubb remains comical even in the face of the imperious Ahab, and he even dares to make a joke at the captain's expense. Although never serious, Stubb is nevertheless a more than competent whaleman: his easygoing manner allows Stubb to prompt his crew to work without seeming imposing or dictatorial, and it is Stubb who kills the first whale on the Pequod's voyage. Nevertheless, Melville does not portray Stubb as an idealized character; although competent and carefree, Stubb is also the character who suggests that the Pequod robs the Rosebud of its whales to secure their ambergris.

Flask The third mate on the ship, Flask plays a much less prominent role than either Starbuck or Stubb. He is a native of Martha's Vineyard with a pugnacious attitude concerning whales. Melville portrays Stubb as a man whose appetites cannot be sated, and in fact in attempting to sate these appetites Flask becomes even more hungry. Pippin He is a young black man and a member of the Pequod crew who replaces one of Stubb's oarsman but becomes incredibly frightened while lowering after a whale and jumps from the boat. Although Stubb saves him the first time, he warns him that he will not do so if he tries it again, and when he does Pip only survives when another boat saves him. After realizing that the others would allow his death, Pip becomes nearly insane. However, Ahab takes pity on him for his madness and allows him use of his cabin. Fedallah He is one of the "dusky phantoms" that compose Ahab's special whaling crew.

The Asiatic and Oriental Fedallah, also called the Parsee, remains a "muffled mystery" to the other characters and represents a sinister figure for the crew of the Pequod; there are even rumors that he is the devil in disguise and wishes to kidnap Ahab. Fedallah has a prophetic dream of hearses twice during the course of the novel, yet both he and Ahab conceive that this means a certain end to Moby Dick. Fedallah dies during the second day of the chase against Moby Dick, when he becomes entangled in the whale line. Peter Coffin Character List Character List Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List Ishmael The narrator of the novel is a keen observer, a young man with an open mind who is wary of Ahab but, like most of the crew, swept away by the captain's charisma. Ahab The "grand, ungodly, god-like man" is a deeply complex figure, one of the most controversial in American literature. His monomaniacal hunt for Moby Dick dominates the novel's plot. Moby Dick The giant sperm whale seems to manipulate his confrontations with mankind in a manner beyond the capacity of a leviathan.

Critics debate the nature of Moby Dick: whether he is an allegorical representation of some eternal power, a representation of Ahab's obsession, or nothing more, literally, than a whale. Queequeg The Polynesian harpooner who opens Ishmael's mind and eventually — and indirectly — saves his life. Queequeg is important to the theme of friendship and the value of diversity. Father Mapple His sermon at the Whaleman's Chapel sets the tone for the novel. The message, through the story of Jonah, is that we must disobey our own desires if we are to learn to obey God. Starbuck The chief mate aboard the Pequod. He is the only one who attempts to stand up to Ahab's obsessive direction of the ship's purpose. Even he eventually acquiesces. Fedallah The ancient Asian who is Ahab's harpooner and spiritual guide. His prophecy regarding Ahab's death ominously foreshadows the end of the novel. Pip The cabin boy, who nearly drowns when he is abandoned during a whale hunt. He discovers painful insights that allow him an unusual view of reality and temporarily endear him to Ahab.

Elijah The cryptic prophet who helps to set an early tone of dark mystery in the novel. He alerts Ishmael to possible problems with Ahab and secrets aboard the Pequod. Stubb The second mate. He considers himself to be quite the wit, but his treatment of Fleece, the cook, is more cruel and racist than it is amusing. Perth The ship's blacksmith. His story is an unusual departure for Melville as it is told with the excessive sentimentality and predictability of melodrama. Gabriel The raving Shaker prophet aboard the Jeroboam. He correctly predicts Ahab's final resting-place. Bildad A hypocritical Quaker. The co-owner's exchange regarding Ishmael's pay allows Melville an opportunity for a little caustic satire. Moby Dick Summary - eNotes.com Moby Dick Summary Trivia Moby Dick Summary In Moby Dick, Ishmael tells the story of Captain Ahab and the white whale. Ahab, the grizzled captain of the whaling boat the Pequod, has become obsessed with the white whale that eludes him. Ahab's relentless pursuit of the whale results in tragedy.

Ishmael joins the crew of the Pequod, a whaling ship helmed by Captain Ahab. There, he befriends a fellow shipmate, Queequeg. Captain Ahab reveals that the white whale, Moby Dick, bit off his leg and that this is why he has a peg leg. Ahab continuously seeks information from other boats as to the white whale's location. In a deadly confrontation, the entire crew of the Pequod is killed except for Ishmael, who lives to tell this story. link Link Summary of the Novel Ishmael, the narrator of the story, explains that he goes to sea whenever he is depressed. In the port of New Bedford, he stays at the Spouter Inn. He is at first frightened by Queequeg, his tattooed, tomahawk-toting bedmate, who has been out selling shrunken heads. Queequeg soon becomes Ishmael’s bosom friend. Ishmael attends a service at the Whaleman’s Chapel where Father Mapple gives a sermon about Jonah and the whale. The next day, Queequeg and Ishmael set out for Nantucket where they sign onto a whaler.

On the ferry ride to the island, a young man mocks Queequeg. Later, this same young man falls overboard and is saved by Queequeg. While Queequeg performs his rites of Ramadan in the room at the Try Pots, Ishmael signs onto the whaler Pequod owned by the Quaker captains, Bildad and Peleg. The heathen Queequeg must prove his skill as a harpooner before he is accepted. As the two friends are about to board the Pequod, they are accosted by the crazed Elijah, who utters vague warnings about Ahab and the voyage. In the mist, they see four or five shadowy figures go aboard. The ship sets sail on Christmas day. The chief mate, Starbuck, chooses Queequeg for his harpooneer; the second mate, Stubb, chooses the Indian, Tashtego; and the third mate, Flask, chooses the African, Daggoo. Several days after the ship sets sail, Ahab finally appears on deck. His appearance sends shivers through Ishmael. A white scar runs from his hairline, over his face, and down his neck beneath his clothing.

He stands upon an artificial leg made of whale bone. Ahab calls all men on deck. He hammers a gold doubloon to the mast and tells the men that the first to spot Moby Dick, the white whale, will win the coin. Ahab admits that it was Moby Dick that took off his leg. When the first whale is sighted and the boats are lowered, the sailors are surprised to see Ahab in his own boat with a mysterious crew who had been hidden below deck. The exotic Fedallah is his harpooner. A squall comes up during the chase. Ishmael's boat capsizes and is later nearly rammed by the Pequod. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the ship has its first of many gams, or meetings with other ships. Ahab’s sole purpose in communicating with these ships is to get news of Moby Dick. Several of the ships have lost men to the whale. The Rachel has recently chased Moby Dick and is now searching for a lost boat. The young son of the captain is in that boat, but Ahab refuses to join the search.

Starbuck confronts Ahab and tries to convince him to abandon his mission to get his revenge on Moby Dick. Stubb’s boat is the first to kill a whale. While Stubb eats his whale steak, Fleece, the cook, delivers a sermon to the sharks. During the cleaning of another whale, Tashtego falls into the tun, the forehead of the whale containing the spermaceti. When the head breaks loose from the ship and falls into the water, Tashtego is rescued by Queegueg. Pip, the timid black boy, is temporarily abandoned in the sea during another whale chase which drives him to madness. Queequeg, stricken with fever and believing death is near, has the ship’s carpenter build him a coffin. Ahab has the blacksmith fashion a special harpoon, tempered in the blood of the heathen harpooners. During a storm, Ahab holds the harpoon above his head and it is struck by lightning. Later, Ahab has a dream, which is interpreted by Fedallah.

The Parsee predicts that he will die before Ahab, that only hemp can kill Ahab, and that before he dies, Ahab will see two hearses upon the sea. At last, Moby Dick is sighted by Ahab. The chase lasts three days. Fedallah dies, lashed by tangled lines to the body of the great beast. Ahab thrusts his harpoon into Moby Dick, but his line runs afoul and catches him around the neck; he is pulled down to the depths. Moby Dick smashes into the bow of the Pequod, and Queequeg’s coffin shoots out of the whirlpool created by the sinking ship. The only survivor, Ishmael, clings to this strange life buoy and is later rescued. Estimated Reading Time Reading time will improve as the reader becomes accustomed to Melville’s style. In an hour’s sitting, 30 to 35 pages could be covered. The book could be completed in 20 to 25 hours. More Content: Summary (hide) link Link Ishmael is a schoolmaster who often feels that he must leave his quiet existence and go to sea.

Much of his life has been spent as a sailor, and his voyages are a means of ridding himself of the restlessness that frequently seizes him. One day, he decides that he will sign on a whaling ship, and packing his carpetbag, he leaves Manhattan and sets out, bound for Cape Horn and the Pacific. On his arrival in New Bedford, Ishmael goes to the Spouter Inn near the waterfront to spend the night. There he finds he can have a bed only if he consents to share it with a harpooner. His strange bedfellow frightens him when he enters the room, for Ishmael is certain that he is a savage cannibal. After a few moments, however, it becomes evident that the native, whose name is Queequeg, is a friendly person, for he presents Ishmael with an embalmed head and offers to share his fortune of thirty dollars. The two men quickly become friends and decide to sign on the same ship. Eventually they sign on the Pequod, a whaler out of Nantucket, Ishmael as a seaman, Queequeg as a harpooner.

Although several people seem dubious about the success of a voyage on a vessel such as the Pequod, which is reported to be under a strange man, Captain Ahab, neither Ishmael nor Queequeg has any intention of giving up their plans. They are, however, curious to see Captain Ahab. For several days after the vessel has sailed, there is no sign of the Captain, as he remains hidden in his cabin. The running of the ship is left to Starbuck and Stubb, two of the mates, and though Ishmael becomes friendly with them, he learns very little more about Ahab. One day, as the ship is sailing southward, the Captain strides out on deck. Ishmael is struck by his stern, relentless expression. In particular, he notices that the Captain has lost a leg and that instead of a wooden leg, he now wears one cut from the bone of the jaw of a whale. A livid white scar runs down one side of his face and is lost beneath his collar, so that it seems as though he were scarred from head to foot. For several days, the ship continues south looking for whale schools.

The sailors take turns on masthead watches to give the sign when a whale is sighted. Ahab appears on deck and summons all his men around him. He pulls out a one ounce gold piece, nails it to the mast, and declares that the first man to sight the great white whale, known to the sailors as Moby Dick, would get the gold. Everyone expresses enthusiasm for the quest except Starbuck and Stubb, Starbuck especially deploring the madness with which Ahab has directed all his energies to this one end. He tells the Captain that he is like a man possessed, for the white whale is a menace to those who would attempt to kill him. Ahab lost his leg in his last encounter with Moby Dick; he might lose his life in the next meeting, but the Captain does not listen to the mate’s warning. Liquor is brought out and, at the Captain’s orders, the crew drinks to the destruction of Moby Dick. Ahab, from what he knows of the last reported whereabouts of the whale, plots a course for the ship that will bring it into the area where Moby Dick is most likely to be.

Near the Cape of Good Hope, the ship comes across a school of sperm whales, and the men busy themselves harpooning, stripping, melting, and storing as many as they are able to catch. When the ship encounters another whaling vessel at sea, Captain Ahab asks for news about the white whale. The captain of the ship warns him not to attempt to chase Moby Dick, but it is clear by now that nothing can deflect Ahab from the course he has chosen. Another vessel stops them, and the captain of the ship boards the Pequod to buy some oil for his vessel. Captain Ahab again demands news of the whale, but the captain knows nothing of the monster. As the captain is returning to his ship, he and his men spot a school of six whales and start after them in their rowboats. While Starbuck and Stubb rally their men into the Pequod’s boats, their rivals are already far ahead of them. The two mates, however, urge their crew until they outstrip their rivals in the race, and Queequeg harpoons the largest whale. Killing the whale is only the beginning of a long and arduous job.

After the carcass is dragged to the side of the boat and lashed to it by ropes, the men descend the side and slash off the blubber. Much of the body is usually demolished by sharks, who stream around, snapping at the flesh of the whale and at each other. The head of the whale is removed and suspended several feet in the air, above the deck of the ship. After the blubber is cleaned, it is melted in tremendous try-pots and then stored in vats below deck. The men are kept busy, but their excitement increases as their ship nears the Indian Ocean and the probable sporting grounds of the white whale. Before long, they cross the path of an English whaling vessel, and Captain Ahab again demands news of Moby Dick. In answer, the captain of the English ship holds out his arm, which from the elbow down consists of sperm whalebone. Ahab demands that his boat be lowered at once, and he quickly boards the deck of the other ship. The captain tells him of his encounter and warns Captain Ahab that it is foolhardy to try to pursue Moby Dick.

When he tells Ahab where he had seen the white whale last, the captain of the Pequod waits for no civilities but returns to his own ship to order the course changed to carry him to Moby Dick’s new feeding ground. Starbuck tries to reason with the mad Captain, to persuade him to give up this insane pursuit, but Ahab seizes a rifle and in his fury orders the mate out of his cabin. Meanwhile, Queequeg has fallen ill with a fever. When it seemed almost certain he would die, he requests that the carpenter make him a coffin in the shape of a canoe, according to the custom of his tribe. The coffin is then placed in the cabin with the sick man, but as yet there is no real need for it. Queequeg recovers from his illness and rejoins his shipmates. He uses his coffin as a sea chest and carves many strange designs upon it. The sailors had been puzzled by the appearance early in the voyage of the Parsee servant, Fedallah. His relationship to the Captain cannot be determined, but that he is highly regarded is evident.

Fedallah prophesies that the Captain will die only after he has seen two strange hearses for carrying the dead upon the sea, one not constructed by mortal hands and the other made of wood grown in America. He also says that the Captain himself will have neither hearse nor coffin for his burial. A terrible storm arises one night. Lightning strikes the masts so that all three flame against the blackness of the night, and the men are frightened by this omen. It seems to them that the hand of God is motioning them to turn from the course to which they had set themselves and return to their homes. Only Captain Ahab is undaunted by the sight. He plants himself at the foot of the mast and challenges the god of evil, which the fire symbolizes for him. He vows once again his determination to find and kill the white whale. A few days later, a cry rings through the ship. Moby Dick has been spotted. The voice is that of Captain Ahab. None of the sailors, alert as they had been, had been able to sight the whale before their captain. Boats are lowered and the chase begins, with Captain Ahab’s boat in the lead.

As he is about to dash his harpoon into the side of the mountain of white, the whale suddenly turns on the boat, dives under it, and splits it into pieces. The men are thrown into the sea, and for some time the churning of the whale prevents rescue. At length, Ahab orders the rescuers to ride into the whale and frighten him away, so he and his men could be rescued. The rest of that day is spent chasing the whale, but to no avail. The second day, the men start out again. They catch up with the whale and bury three harpoons into his white flanks, but he so turns and churns that the lines become twisted, and the boats are pulled every way, with no control over their direction. Two of them are splintered, and the men hauled out of the sea, but Ahab’s boat has not as yet been touched. Suddenly, it is lifted from the water and thrown high into the air. The Captain and the men are quickly rescued, but Fedallah is nowhere to be found. When the third day of the chase begins, Moby Dick seems tired, and the Pequod’s boats soon overtake him.

Bound to the whale’s back by the coils of rope from the harpoon poles, they see the body of Fedallah. The first part of his prophecy had been fulfilled. Moby Dick, enraged by his pain, turns on the boats and splinters them. On the Pequod, Starbuck watches and turns the ship toward the whale in the hope of saving the Captain and some of the crew. The infuriated monster swims directly into the Pequod, shattering the ship’s timbers. Ahab, seeing the ship founder, cries out that the Pequod—made of wood grown in America—is the second hearse of Fedallah’s prophecy. The third prophecy, Ahab’s death by hemp, is fulfilled when rope from Ahab’s harpoon coils around his neck and snatches him from his boat. All except Ishmael perish. He is rescued by a passing ship after clinging for hours to Queequeg’s canoe coffin, which had bobbed to the surface as the Pequod sank.

link Link Moby Dick: Or, The Whale is Melville’s masterpiece, the book in which he most thoroughly used his experiences in the South Seas to examine the human condition and the metaphysical questions that were at the center of the author’s troubled worldview. From the novel’s famous opening line, “Call me Ishmael,” the reader is addressed directly by the book’s youthful but embittered narrator. Unlike many of Melville’s youthful narrators, Ishmael is not presented as a young innocent, although he does face an initiation into the ways of the world. Instead, he is depicted as a young man with a past, who takes to the sea to avoid taking some more drastic action in response to the difficulties he has faced. Ishmael comes to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to sign on to a whaling ship, but before sailing he is confronted with comic and foreboding events that suggest the broad range of the novel. First, Ishmael shares a bed with a tattooed South Seas islander named Queequeg. Despite his initial comic horror, Ishmael demonstrates his open-mindedness by overcoming his fears and becoming friends with the cannibal.

Ishmael also attends the famous whaleman’s chapel, where he hears Father Mapple deliver a sermon based on the story of Jonah and the whale, a sermon that emphasizes the dangers of human pride. After selecting the Pequod, a ship named after an Indian tribe that was massacred by the Puritans, the narrator and his new pagan companion are confronted by a strange old man who warns them of dangers to come. The Pequod sails on Christmas, but Captain Ahab remains in his cabin for many days. Meanwhile, the ship is managed by the three mates, Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask. Ishmael describes the careful hierarchy of the ship, whose ethnically diverse crew composes a microcosmic vision of the world. When Ahab does reveal himself to the crew, his scarred face and whalebone peg leg present a sobering image of a physically and mentally damaged man. Ishmael, who is reflective and open to all ideas, provides the reader with a wealth of information regarding whales, whaling, and whaling ships. His approach to the gathering of knowledge is eclectic, ranging from scientific classification to imaginative association.

As the Pequod’s crew hunts for whales and Ahab hunts for Moby Dick, Ishmael hunts for meaning. In the pivotal chapter, titled “The Quarter-Deck,” Ahab reveals his purpose to the men. In a masterful display of persuasive oratory, he stirs the crew to dedicate themselves to assist him in his vengeful pursuit of the white whale and nails a gold doubloon to the mast as the prize to the man who sights Moby Dick. When Starbuck, whose name suggests his struggle against fate, questions Ahab’s personal pursuit of vengeance against a dumb animal, Ahab reveals his belief that the world is operated by a malicious force that works through visible objects. Thus, Ahab’s quest is not only a matter of individual vengeance but an effort to strike at the controlling force of nature. During the journey around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean, the Pequod’s crew lowers boats to pursue whales. Ahab then reveals the special boat led by the demonic Fedallah, which he has kept hidden. The Pequod also meets other vessels.

Before the novel is over, the Pequod has met nine other ships (Goney, Town-Ho, Jereboam, Jungfrau, Bouton-de-rose, Samuel Enderby, Bachelor, Rachel, and Delight), and each meeting adds perspective to Ahab’s mad quest. As he begins to hear direct testimony about the white whale from sailors on other ships, Ahab’s obsession intensifies. He orders his men to ignore opportunities to capture other whales and frantically studies his charts. Before the final, tragic confrontation, the African American cabin boy, Pip, is lost overboard and goes insane before he is finally rescued by the Pequod. Touched by the lad’s condition, Ahab takes Pip under his personal care, and Pip returns Ahab’s kindness with an innocent devotion that almost distracts Ahab from his vengeful course. It is clear that in order to persevere in his quest, Ahab must sever all ties of human affection. In the end, the crew of the Pequod wages a three-day battle against Moby Dick, a struggle that concludes with the whale’s destruction of the ship and all the crew except Ishmael.

The narrator ironically escapes aboard Queequeg’s coffin and survives to tell the tale. Moby Dick is an expansive book in which Melville uses diverse styles. The book incorporates a wide range of dialects and rhetorical models as different as the new sermon and the tall tale. As in Typee and other earlier novels, Melville inserts autonomous chapters, such as the chapter on cetology, that interrupt the narrative; in Moby Dick, however, the interrelation of these chapters to the themes of the book is closer. Moreover, most of the autonomous chapters in Moby Dick use a particular subject, object, or event to present Ishmael’s musings on the meaning of experience. Moby Dick Summary | GradeSaver Moby Dick Summary Buy Study Guide The novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville is an epic tale of the voyage of the whaling ship the Pequod and its captain, Ahab, who relentlessly pursues the great Sperm Whale (the title character) during a journey around the world. The narrator of the novel is Ishmael , a sailor on the Pequod who undertakes the journey out of his affection for the sea.

Moby Dick begins with Ishmael's arrival in New Bedford as he travels toward Nantucket. He rests at the Spouter Inn in New Bedford, where he meets Queequeg , a harpooner from New Zealand who will also sail on the Pequod. Although Queequeg appears dangerous, he and Ishmael must share a bed together and the narrator quickly grows fond of the somewhat uncivilized harpooner. Queequeg is actually the son of a High Chief who left New Zealand because of his desire to learn among Christians. The next day, Ishmael attends a church service and listens to a sermon by Father Mapple , a renowned preacher who delivers a sermon considering Jonah and the whale that concludes that the tale is a lesson to preacher Truth in the face of Falsehood. On a schooner to Nantucket, Ishmael and Queequeg come across a local bumpkin who mocks Queequeg. However, when this bumpkin is swept overboard, Queequeg saves him. In Nantucket, Queequeg and Ishmael choose between three ships for a year journey, and decide upon the Pequod.

The Captain of the Pequod, Peleg , is now retired, and merely owns the boat with another Quaker, Bildad . Peleg tells them of the new captain, Ahab, and immediately describes him as a grand and ungodly man. Before leaving for their voyage, Ishmael and Queequeg come across a stranger named Elijah who predicts disaster on their journey. Before leaving on the Pequod, Elijah again predicts disaster. Ishmael and Queequeg board the Pequod, where Captain Ahab is still unseen, secluded in his own cabin. Peleg and Bildad consult with Starbuck , the first mate. He is a Quaker and a Nantucket native who is quite practical. The second mate is Stubb , a Cape Cod native with a more jovial and carefree attitude. The third is Flask , a Martha's Vineyard native with a pugnacious attitude. Melville introduces the rest of the crew, including the Indian harpooner Tashtego , the African harpooner Daggoo . Several days into the voyage, Ahab finally appears as a man seemingly made of bronze who stands on an ivory leg fashioned from whalebone.

He eventually gets into a violent argument with Stubb when the second mate makes a joke at Ahab's expense, and kicks him. This leads Stubb to dream of kicking Ahab's ivory leg off, but Flask claims that the kick from Ahab is a sign of honor. At last, Ahab tells the crew of the Pequod to look for a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow: Moby Dick, the legendary whale that took Ahab's leg. Starbuck tells Ahab that his obsession with Moby Dick is madness, but Ahab claims that all things are masks and there is some unknown reasoning behind that mask that man must strike through. For Ahab, Moby Dick is that mask. Ahab himself seems to recognize his own madness. Starbuck begins to worry that the ship is overmatched by the mad captain and knows that he will see an impious end to Ahab. While Queequeg and Ishmael weave a sword-mat for lashing to their boat, the Pequod soon comes upon a whale and Ahab orders his crew to their boats. Ahab orders his special crew, which Ishmael compares to "phantoms," to their boats.

The crew attacks a whale and Queequeg does strike it, but this is insufficient to kill it. Among the "phantoms" in the boat is Fedallah , a sinister Parsee. After passing the Cape of Good Hope, the Pequod comes across the Goney (Albatross), another ship on its voyage. Ahab asks whether they have seen Moby Dick as the ships pass one another, but Ahab cannot hear his answer. The mere passing of the ships is unorthodox behavior, for ships will generally have a 'gam,' a meeting between two ships. The Pequod does have a gam with the next ship it encounters, the Town-Ho. Ishmael interrupts his narration to tell a story that was told to him by the crew of the Town-Ho, just as he would tell it to a circle of Spanish friends after his journey on the Pequod. The story concerns the near mutiny on the Town-Ho and its eventual conflict with Moby Dick. The Pequod does vanquish the next whale that it comes across, as Stubb strikes a whale with his harpoon.

However, as the crew of the Pequod attempts to bring the whale into the ship, sharks attack the carcass and Queequeg nearly loses his hand while fending them off. The Pequod next comes upon the Jeroboam, a Nantucket ship afflicted with an epidemic. Stubb later tells a story about the Jeroboam and a mutiny that occurred on this ship because of a Shaker prophet, Gabriel , on board. The captain of the Jeroboam, Mayhew, warns Ahab about Moby Dick. After vanquishing a Sperm Whale, Stubb next also kills a Right Whale. Although this is not on the ship's agenda, the Pequod pursues a Right Whale because of the good omens associated with having the head of a Sperm Whale and a head of a Right Whale on a ship. Stubb and Flask discuss rumors that Ahab has sold his soul to Fedallah. The next ship that the Pequod meets is the Jungfrau (Virgin), a German ship in desperate need of oil. The Pequod competes with the Virgin for a large whale, and the Pequod is successful in defeating it.

However, the whale carcass begins to sink as the Pequod attempts to secure it and thus the Pequod must abandon it. The Pequod next finds a large group of Sperm Whales and injures several of them, but only captures a single one. Stubb concocts a plan to swindle the next ship that the Pequod meets, the French ship Bouton-de-Rose (Rosebud), of ambergris. Stubb tells them that the whales that they have vanquished are useless and could damage their ship, and when the Rosebud leaves these behind the Pequod takes them in order to gain the ambergris in one of them. Several days after encountering the Rosebud, a young black man on the boat, Pippin , becomes frightened while lowering after a whale and jumps from the boat, becoming entangled in the whale line. Stubb chastises him for his cowardice and tells him that he will be left at sea if he jumps again. When Pippin (Pip) does the same thing again, Stubb remains true to his word and Pip only survives because a nearby boat saves him. Nevertheless, Pip loses his sanity from the event.

The next ship that the Pequod encounters, a British ship called the Samuel Enderby, bears news of Moby Dick but its crewman Dr. Bunger warns Ahab to leave the whale alone. Later, Ahab's leg breaks and the carpenter must fix it. Ahab behaves scornfully toward the carpenter. When Starbuck learns that the casks have sprung a leak, he goes to Ahab's cabin to report the news. Ahab disagrees with Starbuck's advice on the matter, and becomes so enraged that he pulls a musket on Starbuck. Although Ahab warns Starbuck that there is but one God on Earth and one Captain on the Pequod, Starbuck tells him that he will be no danger to Ahab, for Ahab is sufficient danger to himself. Ahab does relent to Starbuck's advice. Queequeg becomes ill from fever and seems to approach death, so he asks for a canoe to serve as a coffin. The carpenter measures Queequeg for his coffin and builds it, but Queequeg returns to health, claiming that he willed his own recovery. Queequeg keeps the coffin and uses it as a sea chest.

Upon reaching the Pacific Ocean, Ahab asks Perth the blacksmith to forge a harpoon to use against Moby Dick. Perth fashions a harpoon that Ahab demands be tempered with the blood of his pagan harpooners, and he howls out that he baptizes the harpoon in the name of the devil. The next ship that the Pequod meets is the Bachelor, a Nantucket ship whose captain denies the existence of Moby Dick. The next day, the Pequod slays four whales, and that night Ahab dreams of hearses. He and Fedallah pledge to slay Moby Dick and survive the conflict, and Ahab boasts of his own immortality. Ahab must soon decide between an easy route past the Cape of Good Hope back to Nantucket and a difficult route in pursuit of Moby Dick. Ahab easily chooses to continue his quest. The Pequod soon comes upon a typhoon on its journey in the Pacific, and while battling this storm the Pequod's compass moves out of alignment. When Starbuck learns this and goes to Ahab's cabin to tell him, he finds the old man asleep.

Starbuck considers shooting Ahab with his musket, but he cannot move himself to shoot his captain after he hears Ahab cry in his sleep "Moby Dick, I clutch thy heart at last." The next morning after the typhoon, Ahab corrects the problem with the compass despite the skepticism of his crew and the ship continues on its journey. Ahab learns that Pip has gone insane and offers his cabin to the poor boy. The Pequod comes upon yet another ship, the Rachel, whose captain, Gardiner, knows Ahab. He requests the Pequod's help in searching for Gardiner's son, who may be lost at sea, but Ahab flatly refuses when he learns that Moby Dick is nearby. The final ship that the Pequod meets is the Delight, a ship that has recently come upon Moby Dick and has nearly been destroyed by its encounter with the whale. Before finally finding Moby Dick, Ahab reminisces about the day nearly forty years before in which he struck his first whale, and laments the solitude of his years out on the sea. He admits that he has chased his prey as more of a demon than a man. The struggle against Moby Dick lasts three days.

On the first day, Ahab spies the whale himself, and the whaling boats row after it. Moby Dick attacks Ahab's boat, causing it to sink, but Ahab survives the ordeal when he reaches Stubb's boat. Despite this first failed attempt at defeating the whale, Ahab pursues him for a second day. On the second day of the chase, roughly the same defeat occurs. This time Moby Dick breaks Ahab's ivory leg, while Fedallah dies when he becomes entangled in the harpoon line and is drowned. After this second attack, Starbuck chastises Ahab, telling him that his pursuit is impious and blasphemous. Ahab declares that the chase against Moby Dick is immutably decreed, and pursues it for a third day. On the third day of the attack against Moby Dick, Starbuck panics for ceding to Ahab's demands, while Ahab tells Starbuck that "some ships sail from their ports and ever afterwards are missing," seemingly admitting the futility of his mission. When Ahab and his crew reach Moby Dick, Ahab finally stabs the whale with his harpoon but the whale again tips Ahab's boat.

However, the whale rams the Pequod and causes it to begin sinking. In a seemingly suicidal act, Ahab throws his harpoon at Moby Dick but becomes entangled in the line and goes down with it. Only Ishmael survives this attack, for he was fortunate to be on a whaling boat instead of on the Pequod. Eventually he is rescued by the Rachel as its captain continues his search for his missing son, only to find a different orphan. SparkNotes: Moby-Dick: Character List Character List Plot Overview Analysis of Major Characters Ishmael - The narrator, and a junior member of the crew of the Pequod. Ishmael doesn’t play a major role in the events of the novel, but much of the narrative is taken up by his eloquent, verbose, and extravagant discourse on whales and whaling. Read an in-depth analysis of Ishmael. Ahab - The egomaniacal captain of the Pequod. Ahab lost his leg to Moby Dick. He is single-minded in his pursuit of the whale, using a mixture of charisma and terror to persuade his crew to join him. As a captain, he is dictatorial but not unfair.

At moments he shows a compassionate side, caring for the insane Pip and musing on his wife and child back in Nantucket. Read an in-depth analysis of Moby Dick. Starbuck - The first mate of the Pequod. Starbuck questions Ahab’s judgment, first in private and later in public. He is a Quaker who believes that Christianity offers a way to interpret the world around him, although he is not dogmatic or pushy about his beliefs. Starbuck acts as a conservative force against Ahab’s mania. Read an in-depth analysis of Starbuck. Queequeg - Starbuck’s skilled harpooner and Ishmael’s best friend. Queequeg was once a prince from a South Sea island who stowed away on a whaling ship in search of adventure. He is a composite of elements of African, Polynesian, Islamic, Christian, and Native American cultures. He is brave and generous, and enables Ishmael to see that race has no bearing on a man’s character. Stubb - The second mate of the Pequod. Stubb, chiefly characterized by his mischievous good humor, is easygoing and popular.

He proves a bit of a nihilist, always trusting in fate and refusing to assign too much significance to anything. Read an in-depth analysis of Stubb. Tashtego - Stubb’s harpooner, Tashtego is a Gay Head Indian from Martha’s Vineyard, one of the last of a tribe about to disappear. Tashtego performs many of the skilled tasks aboard the ship, such as tapping the case of spermaceti in the whale’s head. Like Queequeg, Tashtego embodies certain characteristics of the “noble savage” and is meant to defy racial stereotypes. He is, however, more practical and less intellectual than Queequeg: like many a common sailor, Tashtego craves rum. Flask - A native of Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard and the third mate of the Pequod. Short and stocky, Flask has a confrontational attitude and no reverence for anything. His stature has earned him the nickname “King-Post,” because he resembles a certain type of short, square timber. Read an in-depth analysis of Flask. Daggoo - Flask’s harpooner. Daggoo is a physically enormous, imperious-looking African.

Like Queequeg, he stowed away on a whaling ship that stopped near his home. Daggoo is less prominent in the narrative than either Queequeg or Tashtego. Pip - A young black boy who fills the role of a cabin boy or jester on the Pequod. Pip has a minimal role in the beginning of the narrative but becomes important when he goes insane after being left to drift alone in the sea for some time. Like the fools in Shakespeare’s plays, he is half idiot and half prophet, often perceiving things that others don’t. Fedallah - A strange, “oriental” old Parsee (Persian fire-worshipper) whom Ahab has brought on board unbeknownst to most of the crew. Fedallah has a very striking appearance: around his head is a turban made from his own hair, and he wears a black Chinese jacket and pants. He is an almost supernaturally skilled hunter and also serves as a prophet to Ahab. Fedallah keeps his distance from the rest of the crew, who for their part view him with unease. Peleg - A well-to-do retired whaleman of Nantucket and a Quaker.

As one of the principal owners of the Pequod, Peleg, along with Captain Bildad, takes care of hiring the crew. When the two are negotiating wages for Ishmael and Queequeg, Peleg plays the generous one, although his salary offer is not terribly impressive. Bildad - Another well-to-do Quaker ex-whaleman from Nantucket who owns a large share of the Pequod. Bildad is (or pretends to be) crustier than Peleg in negotiations over wages. Both men display a business sense and a bloodthirstiness unusual for Quakers, who are normally pacifists. Father Mapple - A former whaleman and now the preacher in the New Bedford Whaleman’s Chapel. Father Mapple delivers a sermon on Jonah and the whale in which he uses the Bible to address the whalemen’s lives. Learned but also experienced, he is an example of someone whose trials have led him toward God rather than bitterness or revenge. Captain Boomer - The jovial captain of the English whaling ship the Samuel Enderby. Boomer lost his arm in an accident involving Moby Dick.

Unlike Ahab, Boomer is glad to have escaped with his life, and he sees further pursuit of the whale as madness. He is a foil for Ahab, as the two men react in different ways to a similar experience. Gabriel - A sailor aboard the Jeroboam. Part of a Shaker sect, Gabriel has prophesied that Moby Dick is the incarnation of the Shaker god and that any attempts to harm him will result in disaster. His prophecies have been borne out by the death of the Jeroboam’s mate in a whale hunt and the plague that rages aboard the ship. More Help SparkNotes: Moby-Dick: Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Limits of Knowledge As Ishmael tries, in the opening pages of Moby-Dick, to offer a simple collection of literary excerpts mentioning whales, he discovers that, throughout history, the whale has taken on an incredible multiplicity of meanings. Over the course of the novel, he makes use of nearly every discipline known to man in his attempts to understand the essential nature of the whale.

Each of these systems of knowledge, however, including art, taxonomy, and phrenology, fails to give an adequate account. The multiplicity of approaches that Ishmael takes, coupled with his compulsive need to assert his authority as a narrator and the frequent references to the limits of observation (men cannot see the depths of the ocean, for example), suggest that human knowledge is always limited and insufficient. When it comes to Moby Dick himself, this limitation takes on allegorical significance. The ways of Moby Dick, like those of the Christian God, are unknowable to man, and thus trying to interpret them, as Ahab does, is inevitably futile and often fatal. The Deceptiveness of Fate In addition to highlighting many portentous or foreshadowing events, Ishmael’s narrative contains many references to fate, creating the impression that the Pequod’s doom is inevitable. Many of the sailors believe in prophecies, and some even claim the ability to foretell the future. A number of things suggest, however, that characters are actually deluding themselves when they think that they see the work of fate and that fate either doesn’t exist or is one of the many forces about which human beings can have no distinct knowledge.

Ahab, for example, clearly exploits the sailors’ belief in fate to manipulate them into thinking that the quest for Moby Dick is their common destiny. Moreover, the prophesies of Fedallah and others seem to be undercut in Chapter 99, when various individuals interpret the doubloon in different ways, demonstrating that humans project what they want to see when they try to interpret signs and portents. The Exploitative Nature of Whaling At first glance, the Pequod seems like an island of equality and fellowship in the midst of a racist, hierarchically structured world. The ship’s crew includes men from all corners of the globe and all races who seem to get along harmoniously. Ishmael is initially uneasy upon meeting Queequeg, but he quickly realizes that it is better to have a “sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” for a shipmate. Additionally, the conditions of work aboard the Pequod promote a certain kind of egalitarianism, since men are promoted and paid according to their skill. However, the work of whaling parallels the other exploitative activities—buffalo hunting, gold mining, unfair trade with indigenous peoples—that characterize American and European territorial expansion.

Each of the Pequod’s mates, who are white, is entirely dependent on a nonwhite harpooner, and nonwhites perform most of the dirty or dangerous jobs aboard the ship. Flask actually stands on Daggoo, his African harpooner, in order to beat the other mates to a prize whale. Ahab is depicted as walking over the black youth Pip, who listens to Ahab’s pacing from below deck, and is thus reminded that his value as a slave is less than the value of a whale. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Whiteness Whiteness, to Ishmael, is horrible because it represents the unnatural and threatening: albinos, creatures that live in extreme and inhospitable environments, waves breaking against rocks. These examples reverse the traditional association of whiteness with purity. Whiteness conveys both a lack of meaning and an unreadable excess of meaning that confounds individuals. Moby Dick is the pinnacle of whiteness, and Melville’s characters cannot objectively understand the White Whale.

Ahab, for instance, believes that Moby Dick represents evil, while Ishmael fails in his attempts to determine scientifically the whale’s fundamental nature. Surfaces and Depths Ishmael frequently bemoans the impossibility of examining anything in its entirety, noting that only the surfaces of objects and environments are available to the human observer. On a live whale, for example, only the outer layer presents itself; on a dead whale, it is impossible to determine what constitutes the whale’s skin, or which part—skeleton, blubber, head—offers the best understanding of the entire animal. Moreover, as the whale swims, it hides much of its body underwater, away from the human gaze, and no one knows where it goes or what it does. The sea itself is the greatest frustration in this regard: its depths are mysterious and inaccessible to Ishmael. This motif represents the larger problem of the limitations of human knowledge. Humankind is not all-seeing; we can only observe, and thus only acquire knowledge about, that fraction of entities—both individuals and environments—to which we have access: surfaces. Symbols

Question: Who was the chief harpooner on Captain Ahab's whaleship?
Answer: Queequeg